Once Democrats take charge of the House, addressing climate change will become top priority again

Our oceans have actually absorbed 60% more heat over the last 25 years than we previously estimated.
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This is a giant postcard made of 125,000 individual postcards containing messages aiming to fight climate change and global warming made on the Aletsch glacier near the Jungfraujoch saddle by the Jungfrau peak, Switzerland,(Photo: VALENTIN FLAURAUD, EPA-EFE)

Party leaders vowed to hold hearings on President Donald Trump's aggressive efforts to undo Obama-era climate rules and demanded internal documents on administration decisions to scale back restrictions on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

That urgency grew after the release Friday of a dire government report that climate change poses an increasing risk to the planet in the form of extreme weather, worsening health conditions, the spread of new diseases, increasing drought and famine and economic decline.

Trump said Monday that he's not buying the National Climate Assessment's warning that the effects of global warming could reduce the nation's GDP by as much as 10 percent by 2100.

"I don't believe it," he said when asked about the conclusions of the report, which was written by dozens of top scientists from 13 federal agencies in the Trump administration.

The quandary for the party leaders when they take back power Jan. 3 is how aggressively to pursue an issue that contributed to the tea party wave that fueled the Republican takeover of the House in 2010.

How prepared are they to address opponents' arguments that "alarmist" climate change policies would increase energy prices and reduce consumer choice? How willing are they to take on a president who was elected two years ago on an America First platform that promised to "bring back coal" as part of an energy independence agenda?

For now, Democrats are content to build a case through fierce congressional oversight and the power to subpoena administration records, knowing that any major legislation they could pass probably would be vetoed by the president even if it got past the GOP-controlled Senate.

Lawmakers led by incoming Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., demanded documents related to Environmental Protection Agency proposals to let states regulate their power plants, freeze fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light trucks and roll back requirements on the power industry to check and repair methane leaks.

Effects are already being felt through stronger hurricanes, more intense wildfires, melting glaciers and loss of habitat, researchers say.

Despite broad evidence that greenhouse gases from fossil fuels are a primary culprit, the Trump administration made expansion of fossil fuels, including more offshore oil and gas drilling and mining, a centerpiece of its energy and economic agenda.

Incoming House Commerce and Energy Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., plans to press the Trump administration on its push to expand fossil fuel programs given the effects of carbon emissions on climate change.(Photo: The Associated Press)

David Doniger, a climate change expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said forcing records into the light of day could pressure the EPA to withdraw rules or Congress to pass laws if they show the agency selectively used information or improperly skewed cost-benefits analyses to favor the fossil fuels industry.

"It's always important to know ... more about the real influence and the real reasons and the real beneficiaries of these decisions," he said. "The public has a right to know that."

Pelosi was speaker in 2009 when the chamber narrowly passed a "cap and trade" bill to address climate change. Portrayed by opponents as little more than an energy tax that would hit consumers' wallets, the measure never came up for a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate and helped fuel the tea party wave that propelled Republicans to take control of the House in 2010.

Though the effects and predicted consequences of climate change have grown more dire since then, some House Democrats are content with modest efforts to address global warming.